It seemed to everyone after the introductory rounds of EPL that everybody’d have a very tough time taking the points away from City this season. That still is the case, but coach Mark Hughes’ players are recording a lot less wins than before. The Citizens have as many as 8 draws in their last 10 games. It’s clear they’ve got problems defeating their rivals, which they proved against Hull in the last round of EPL as well. They took the lead with Wright-Phillips’ goal in the 45th minute just to lose their focus towards the end of the match and concede a goal through a penalty in the 82nd minute, which brought visitors the equalizer and became the final score eventually. No matter we’re talking about Carling Cup or a Premiership game, I expect coach Mark Hughes to be fielding his best lineup possible for this match. It should be noted that their defense consisted of Richards, Bridge, Toure and Lescott is playing pretty poor, however, those are all excellent players that need just a bit more time to get it going and create a powerful fortress in front of Given’s goal.
Arsenal`s kindergarten
Arsenal displayed a poor performance in front of their fans the past weekend as they got crushed by Chelsea in the city derby by 3:0, not even managing to create a single decent goal-scoring chance. It’s well-known that the Gunners’ manager, Arsene Wenger, has an interesting way of leading his team in the Carling Cup. He’s been giving the youngsters a chance to play many minutes in this competition for many seasons now, and he stated there is no reason why Arsenal reserves’ captain Kyle Bartley, strikers Sanchez Watt and Craig Eastmond, who are only 18 years old, as well as 19-yr old Spaniard Fran Merida, shouldn’t get a chance to play at this match. We’re talking about some extremely talented players, who need such matches in order to be fit for the EPL in a couple of seasons. Arsene Wenger said this is the right opportunity for them to prepare for the more serious challenges that are awaiting them in the future, as he is definitely gonna be counting on their services. Therefore, the Frenchman won’t give up on his usual routine of fielding lots of young players despite playing against a big team, so his chances of recording a win won’t be that great. It was also visible that players like Denilson, Traore, Song or Vela are still not that experienced to put up a bit more serious resistance to a rival like Chelsea, or Manchester City. What kind of resistance can we expect from Arsenal’s reserves then? The future is surely ahead of them, and there’s no doubt they will explode in a few seasons, but for now I just think they won’t be able to do much.
The Citizens will justify the role of favs
Manchester City is a big favorite in this match despite the fact Arsenal will be their opponent, which is currently third-placed side in the EPL standings. Simply, it’s hard to expect that mixed Arsenal’s squad, where we’ll be seeing a few players from their reserves team, will manage to record a positive result. City will probably field their best lineup, and considering the fact their offense is consisted of Robinho, Tevez and Adebayor (ex-Arsenal’s player), the visitors’ defense will be having a very hard time to keep a clean sheet and avoid a loss.
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Prediction:
Tip: 1
Odd: 2.00
Bookie: Bet365
Stake: 8 /10
Tipster: Kather
